Looking for room to grow, beverage companies are targeting a previously untapped time of day — breakfast.

Forget the hot chocolate or cappuccino, how about a Mountain Dew with your bacon and eggs?

Looking for room to grow, beverage companies are targeting a previously untapped time of day — breakfast.

In a report released last week, Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd., the bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola beverages for some Western European countries, identified breakfast as a time of day with potential for growth.

The report looks at ways to get consumers drinking more non-alcoholic cold beverages, including soft drinks, juice and smoothies, at home, at work, at play, on the go, during meals and while they relax.

The company estimates that by 2017, it could make £2.1 billion, or about $3.4 billion (U.S.), in extra sales if the identified “growth areas” are successfully developed.

Smoothies are an attractive option because they provide health benefits, fit in well with our busy lifestyle, and companies can charge more for the added value, said Stephen Brown, national leader for Deloitte’s retail and consumer products consulting.

PepsiCo.’s offering is Mountain Dew Kickstart, an orange or fruit-flavoured drink that contains five per cent real juice and 92 milligrams of caffeine in a 16 fluid ounce can.

Associating Kickstart with the Mountain Dew brand is a “safe launch,” said Jonas Feliciano, beverage analyst with Euromonitor, because it will appeal to the same young, active, male demographic Mountain Dew caters to.

It’s being marketed in the U.S. as an alternative to the hot beverage you would usually opt for at breakfast. But Feliciano said that brand association may limit the chances of getting people outside of that specific demographic to make the switch from coffee or juice.

Kickstart isn’t available in Canada, and there are no plans to bring it here, said a spokesman for Pepsi Co. Canada.

Even if it was available here, it would be hard to convince Canadians to switch over from a hot cup of coffee, says Robert Carter, executive director, food service at consumer and retail market research firm The NPD Group.

In this country, no matter what time of day it is, “coffee reigns supreme,” he said.

“We’re dealing with a much more educated consumer than we ever have in the past,” he said. Convincing that health-savvy consumer to give up a smoothie, or even a coffee, for a soda would be tough.

Denis Collier, a registered dietitian, said even replacing a morning coffee with a juice isn’t necessarily a good idea. A self-professed “fan” of black coffee, he noted that some juices have more sugar per millilitre than pop.

“You might as well have the Coke,” he said.

He warms to the notion of a smoothie at breakfast — provided it’s made with real fruit — but likens juice to “garbage.”

A 2011 Public Health Agency of Canada report cites soft drinks as one of seven food commodities associated with rising obesity in Canada. About one in four Canadians is obese, the report said.

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